As usual, the campaign promoting Democrat Tim Probst is messy and nasty with accusations being hurled about against Lynda Wilson, most with no basis in fact.

But in the midst of it all, there is one fact left out as people argue to return Democrats to control of the Senate. That fact is glaring and should be strongly considered by voters.

As we all know, the State Supreme Court ruled a couple years ago that the legislature failed in fully funding education and recently has pushed for some sort of an income tax and more taxation to raise more revenue to feed to the greedy teachers unions.

All ballots have been counted and the election department is reporting a final tally of who remains to move ahead to the general election. Nothing has actually changed from early results other than in the 17th Legislative District Senate race where Lynda Wilson pulled ahead of Tim Probst by a razor thin margin.

That race alone should tell you all how important single votes can be as Lynda finishes a scant 50 votes ahead of Probst.

And if you recall, this same Senate seat was won by Don Benton in 2012 by a mere 74 votes over Tim Probst who initially felt he had it in the bag then.

In his usual bluster, Probst felt he had a sure thing this time as well, but once again came in second by a handful of votes. Time will tell if that carries forward in the general or not.

As expected, the race in the 17th Legislative District Senate seat vacated by 5 term Republican Don Benton finishes with a razor thin margin between the two candidates vying for the seat, former Representative, Democrat Tim Probst and Representative, Republican Lynda Wilson.

In spite of that razor thin margin, listening to Probst you would believe he accomplished a landslide victory as the initial count had him ahead of Wilson by about 200 votes.

That slim initial count led him to post on his facebook page, “This week we saw unity and love for one another beat divisiveness and anger. We just saw the regular people beat the big money. Celebrate this!”

Nothing out of the ordinary for Democrat candidate for the 17th Legislative District Senate seat, we once again see Tim Probst firing off negative antics against his opponent, Republican Lynda Wilson.

This is par for the course with Probst as similar negativity has been seen in every campaign he has been involved in, even though he crows the loudest about clean campaigning and his efforts to run a clean campaign I have yet to see.

In this first negative ad he sent out, we see the effort to tie Lynda Wilson to 5-term State Senator Don Benton, who is not running for reelection and much reviled by Democrats in Southwest Washington.

Having offered my opinion on the 49th and 18th Districts, I now focus on what looks to be one of the more important districts for both parties in Washington State, the 17th.

Unlike the other two, neither party has a strong hold on the 17th. A “swing district,” the 17th has shown over the years their willingness to elect people from both parties as late as 2012.

While Republicans currently hold the edge in the i7th, Democrats have shown just how bad they want to make advances in the district as we saw in 2012 when they all but threw the kitchen sink towards defeating 5 times elected Republican State Senator, Don Benton, only to lose by a scant 78 votes.

Who knew that a Progressive Democrat like Sen Maralyn Chase (D 32) would get emotional bidding Sen Don Benton (R 17) farewell as the State Senate paid him tribute upon his coming retirement after being elected to the Senate 5 times now?

I haven’t received the email from the Elections Department yet, but the Columbian is now saying the recount shows 17th Legislative District Senator Don Benton retains his seat by 74 votes. Tim Probst and the Democrats have lost, in spite of running one of the most expensive and sleazy campaigns I can recall in their effort to unseat Don.

There is little doubt how the Washington State Democrats have pinned all hopes on former 17th Legislative District Representative Tim Probst to steal the State Senate seat held by Republican State Senator Don Benton for the past 16 years in order to retain the destructive majority that has led our state into such economic gloom we still see.

Clark County, where a large portion of the 17th district exists remains in its 4th straight year of double digit unemployment while these same deceiving Democrats continue to push for higher taxes and enabling more people to depend on welfare & food stamps.

We have focused on false and misleading claims by Tim Probst and PACs pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into attack ads designed to make the voters believe Don Benton is the worst person ever born, while trying to make Tim Probst appear like a sweet little angel.

He isn’t. In fact, he is far from it. Don’t let the boyish face and smirk fool you.

The Democrats burning desire to steal Washington States’ 17th Legislative District away from the Republicans continues. The “Lies, Deceit and Desperation” previously noted not only continue unabated, but have grown.

As previously noted, Democrats have decided to throw just about everything except the kitchen sink into their effort to defeat 4 time State Senator Don Benton and have no conscience on how they do it, not that Democrats were ever known for having a conscience.

It is being reported that they have recently poured nearly $300,000 towards races in the 17th, primarily to defeat Benton and some to ensure union backed activist Monica Stonier defeats Ridgefield School Board President, Julie Olson, although we know Senator Benton is their primary target.

This blog indicated what can be expected in this mass effort to retain and grow Democrats control of our state. Flyers received last evening shows how misleading and deceptive they intend to be to ensure Tim Probst is installed to do their bidding the next 4 years.

Democrat Tim Probst, hoping to unseat Republican Senator Don Benton in Washington State’s 17th Legislative District always puffs out his chest, boasting of how he adheres to the ‘Clean Campaign Pledge,’ but he only recently denounced any of the negative attacks ads sent out on his behalf and only after being goaded into it. The Clean Campaign Pledge he boasts of signing calls for signatories to denounce such negative campaigning.

This blog recently revealed that Democrats have set $85,000 towards negative attacks on behalf of Tim Probst and likely Monica Stonier too, another Democrat hoping to finally get a seat in the legislature. Stonier previously showed she is more than willing to attack than discuss issues, but she still lost, voters seeing through her smoke screen.

With such a large amount of money being dedicated this late in the campaign, you can expect to see more of what follows flooding mail boxes soon on behalf of both or either Probst or Stonier.

In his first bid for office, opponent Joseph James was attacked not over any issue, but his profession, owning a dog grooming business, labeling James a “Show Dog.”

Since they cannot compete in the arena of ideas or address real issues, it appears there is a major plot brewing against Republicans in the 17th Legislative District. Word has reached me that they have parked $85,000 for 17th District Independent Expenditures, likely for more vile attacks against Senator Don Benton and Julie Olson.

It has been shown previous that neither Democrat running and hoping to switch control of the 17th has any strong stand on issues affecting Southwest Washington and we have already seen several attacks ads with false claims being sent out against Senator Benton.

Even the Columbian, endorsing Democrat Monica Stonier inadvertently admitted Julie Olson is the better candidate, but endorsed Stonier due to her winning the primary election, forgetting that there was 2 Republicans and combining their vote’s amounts to nearly 2,000 more than Stonier received.

Longtime Democrat party activist, operative and pollster Pat Caddell recently stated, “The Press is the ‘enemy of the American people’” in a speech given at an Accuracy in Media event. Of course, he is addressing the media’s reluctance, or more accurately, their refusal to publish much about the ongoing scandals regarding the Obama Administration.

But his point goes much further if we look towards the heavy bias often seen in our own local paper, the Columbian, or as many see it, the “unofficial daily newsletter for the Democrat Party” and their coverage of local and state politics.

The bias is evidenced in their creation of controversies where none really exists as well as what can only be described as pure hate of certain elected officials, Republicans of course.

Created Controversy

Once again we see the Columbian taking something and blowing into a full blown scandal even though there actually is nothing really wrong. We saw this same creating a controversy previously as an elderly Democrat couple receiving a campaign letter seeking donations and disguised as a poll became offended and the paper created a huge scandal, Podunk Reporter Creates Issue, Boasts of Resolution.

Democrats have long been known for their ‘win at any cost’ strategies and tactics. Our National and Gubernatorial elections have been seen rampant with dirty tricks, apparent fraud, deceitful claims and more.

It is also well known that Washington State Democrats have long wanted to take over the seat of State Senator Don Benton in the 17th Legislative District and flip the house seats back to their party. To that end now we see even more underhanded campaign tactics to include attacking Republican Julie Olson running for the open seat and being challenged for the seat by Democrat Monica Stonier, who has shown how desperate she is for public office in the past 2 years.

To that end, a Republican PCO residing in the 17th recently received was alleged to her to be an “Opinion Poll” from the 702 area code in Clark County, Nevada. The “poll” began with a few questions on the presidential race, and then quickly turned into a slam session against both Senator Benton and Julie Olson, as you can hear below.

Tim Probst, Democrat challenger hoping to unseat 4 time Republican Senator from Washington State’s 17th Legislative District is showing signs of realizing his chances of doing so are becoming increasingly dismal. Such realization seems to drive Probst to further violate the very “Clean Campaign Pledge” he boasted of signing and previously used to hammer Senator Benton over the head with.

Tim Probst, hoping to unseat 4-time Senator Don Benton has been making a lot of noise, slamming Senator Benton and raising malicious claims, the same tired old malicious claims raised election after election against Senator Benton. Democrats seem to hope that now, boyish faced Probst can make the allegations stick and impress voters in the 17th Legislative District he is the better candidate to represent them.

Issues seem to allude Probst in his usual negative campaigning, not even taking a public stance on the largest issues affecting Southwest Washington, the CRC & Portland, Oregon’s financially plagues light rail being forced into Clark County.

Stepping back and looking reveals what every voter needs to see, that Tim Probst is not who they need for State Senator in the 17th.

Tim shows this now as after all of his negative campaigning, in violation of the very ‘Clean Campaign Pledge’ he made a fuss over his signing, he will not even meet Senator Benton for a live debate, moderated by former 18th Legislative District State Senator, Joe Zarelli to be hosted on Couv.com.

There is little doubt that the State Senate race in the 17th Legislative District is one of them, if not the hottest race in the state this election. It is no secret that Democrats have long sought to see Senator Don Benton, elected to the Senate 4 times now, ousted and a Democrat take his place.

Tim Probst, Representative for position 1 in the 17th was enticed to leave his fairly safe House seat and take on Benton, a hard charging and very effective Senator, even though he has been in the minority party his entire time in the Senate.

Evidence of the urgency for the Democrats to defeat Senator Benton comes from several areas, but one of the best would be the words from a Democrat candidate for the State Senate running against Senator Ann Rivers, Ralph Schmidt, who openly says he realizes he has no chance of winning.

Schmidt told the Columbian,

“I actually don’t have a lot of money. The party is supporting me some, but mostly the 17th (District) is like a vortex sucking up all the time and money, because that’s where the competitive races are.”

Tim Probst, stepping away from his 17th Legislative District Representative seat in an effort to unseat 4 time State Senator Don Benton has been showing his true nature this campaign, not taking a position on the single most important issue facing Clark County, distancing himself from mud slung on his behalf while not denouncing or disagreeing with it and making untrue claims about Senator Benton.

It now appears that boyish faced Democrat Tim Probst gets to add a Public Disclosure Commission to the list of un-qualifiers.

Most PDC complaints amount to little, but this one, filed due to his campaign acceptance of illegal contributions and condoning untruthful campaign claims may grow some teeth.

For some time now, Probst has tried to smear Senator Benton over his not yet signing the League of Women Voters Clean Campaign Pledge. Yet, as previously shown here, Probst does not adhere to the pledge he signed himself.

It’s no secret that the Washington State Democrats have wanted rid of 4-term Republican State Senator Don Benton in the 17th Legislative District as he has been one of the most outspoken opponents to their agenda of taxing citizens to death and empowering public unions, not to mention forcing Southwest Washington to accept Portland, Oregon’s financially plagues light rail into our community and state against our will.

Tim Probst enjoys hiding his true nature behind his boyish face and in spite of a history of pledging “clean campaigns,” his past 2 elections have shown he stealthily engages in negative attacks ads, even to the point of copyright violations, as was acknowledged to me in email with Columbian editor Lou Brancaccio back in October 2010.